High School Soccer Star Bernabe Rangel To Be Deported

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. -- A video game is getting a Dalton student kicked out of the country.

Channel 2’s John Bachman watched Southeast Whitfield High School’s Beabe Rangel play in his last soccer match Wednesday night before he’s to be deported. His coach and others fought for him to stay in the United States, but next week he will retu to Mexico after spending most of his life in the U.S.

Rangel is a four-year starter at Southeast Whitfield. He moved to the U.S. with his parents when he was 6 years old, so feels American, he said.

”I know I'm not, but since 6 years old I've been here," Rangel told Bachman.

His immigration status wasn't an issue until a year ago, when someone gave him a video game, which he said he didn't know was stolen. The charges were later dropped, but his arrest caught the attention of immigration and customs agents.

”Sometimes I think about second chances, but the law is the law, and you have to go with it, Rangel said.

His soccer coach tried to keep him in the country. And just last Friday, the federal govement waed Georgia schools they must educate children regardless of their legal status.

”It's a conveyor belt in one direction. You can slow it down, but stopping it is really difficult," Coach Jamison Griffin said.

He managed to keep Rangel in school long enough to graduate, but Monday, he will be separated from his family and friends. Griffin said it’s a hard pill to swallow.

"Black and white become very different when it's flesh and blood," he said.